Ratchet nut and pipe wrench.



D. W. REIP.

RATCHET NUT AND PIPE WRENCH.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 12. 1911.

1,229,322. Patented June 12, 1917.

Witnesses A v Mn Attorneys.

DAVID w. REIP, or LOTHAIR, MONTANA.

RATGHET 1\T U'l AND PIPE WRENCH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 12, 1917.

Application filed January 12, 1917. Serial No. 142,024.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DAVID 1V. R1511, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lothair, in the county of Hill and State of Montana, have invented a new and useful Ratchet Nut and Pipe Trench, of which the following is a specification.

The device forming the subject matter of this application is a wrench, and the inven tion aims to provide a wrench of the type disclosed, in which the shanks of the main and auxiliary members of the wrench are so disposed with respect to the jaws of the said members, that when a force is exerted on the shanks, tending to draw the jaws together, a minimum force so applied will be ren dered peculiarly eliicient in causing the jaws to clamp an object firmly.

It is within the province of the disclosure to improve generally and to enhance the utility of devices ofthat type'to which the present invention appertains.

With the above and other objects in view which will appear as the description pro ceeds, the invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafter described and claimed, it being understood that changes in the precise embodiment of the invention herein disclosed can be made within the scope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 shows in side elevation, a wrench constructed in accordance with the present invention, parts being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a top plan of the wrench;

Fig. 3 is a bottom plan of the wrench; and

Figs. 4 and 5 are diagrams, alluded to hereinafter.

The wrench forming the subject matter of this application preferably is fashioned from metal throughout and includes a main member denoted generallyby the numeral 1. The main member 1 comprises a shank 2 and a fixed jaw 3 having teeth 4. The shank 2 is disposed at an obtuse angle to the fixed jaw 3. In the shank 2 openings 5 are formed.

The wrench includes an auxiliary member denoted by the numeral 6 and comprising a shank 7 and a jaw 8. The shank 7 is disp s t n acute ang to the jaw 8. The

jaw 8 has teeth 10. The shanks 7 and 1 project in'opposite directions and are slidably interengaged, the jaw'8'having an opening 9- through which the shank 1 passes. As indicated. by the reference character 11, the shank 7 of the auxiliary member 6 is of trough shape in cross section, so that the shank 2 of the main member 1 may slide therein.

Mounted in one of the openings 5 of the shank 2 is a pivot element 12. The numeral 14 denotes a lever having a slot 15 defining side arms 16 located on opposite sides of the shank 2 and mounted to swing onthe pivot element 12. The side arms 16 carry a pivot element 17 extended across the slot 15. The numeral 18 denotes a dog, the upper end of which lies in the slot 15 and is mounted to swing on the pivot element 17. The lower end of the dog is adapted to engage a rack 19 formed on the rear edge of the shank 7 of the auxiliary member 6. A spring 20, which may be in the form of a resilient strip extends through the slot 15 in the lever 14, one end of the spring 20 being secured as shown at 21 to one edge of the lever, and the other end of the spring 20 being received slidably in a shallow groove 22 formed in the outer face of the dog 18. The function of the spring 20, obviously, is to maintain the dog 18 engaged in the rack 19. When the lever 14 is swung in the direction of the arrow A in Fig. 1, the jaws 3 and 8 will be brought together, and an object between the jaws will be gripped. When the lever 14 is swung in a direction opposite to that indicated by the arrow A, the jaws 3 and 8 will be separated. Owing to this construction, the jaws 8 and 3 can secure a new hold readily on the object which is being rotated, without withdrawing the wrench from the object and replacing the wrench on the object again, as is necessary when a monkey wrench or an alligator wrench is employed.

One of the salient and important features .of the invention remains to be discussed. In

the diagrammatic figure which is numbered 4, the main and auxiliary members of my wrench are shown, it being recalled that the parts 7 and 8 are disposed at an acute angle, the parts 2 and 3 being disposed at an obtuse angle. In Fig. 5 of the drawings, there is shown diagrammatically, a part of a wrench in which the elements 7 and 8 and. .2 and 3 are disposed at right angles to each other. In Fig. 4c ofthe drawings, the arrow B represents the direction of the force applied to the member 6 by the dog 18, and in Fig. 5 the arrow C represents the tween the arrow G and the part 7 is denoted by the reference character E. Now, out of a force exerted in the direction of the arrow B or in the direction of the arrow 0, must be resolved a component which tends to move the jaw 8 toward the jaw 8, or to move the jaw 8* toward the jaw 3 The value of this component is, from a mathematical point of view, a function of the angle D or a function of the angle E. The value of the component above mentioned is greater in Fig. 4 than it is in Fig. 5, because the angle D is smaller than the angle E. There is, therefore, a manifest advantage in disposing the parts 7 and 8 at an acute angle, and disposing the parts 2 and 3 at an obtuse angle,

since a given force exerted by thev lever 14 in the direction of the arrow A will clamp the jaws 8 and 3 more tightly on an object when the parts are arranged as shown in Fig. 4, and when the parts are arranged as shown in Fig. 5.

Gopies of this patent may be obtained for Having thus described the invention, what is claimed is i A wrench including a main member comprising a shank and a fixed jaw projecting from the shank, the shank being disposed at anobtuse angle to the jaw; an auxiliary member comprising a shank having a rack on its outer edge, and a fixed jaw projecting from the shank of the auxiliary member and disposed at an acute angle to said shank, the shanks extending in opposite directions, and being slidably interengaged for relative right line movement, the jaw of the auxiliary member having an opening through which the free end of the shank of the main member passes; a lever pivoted to the free end of the'shank of the main coacting with the rack, the dog extending longituc linally of the shanksto receive an endwise thrust when the wrench is in use; and spring means cooperating with the dog to hold the same in approximate parallelism to the shanks.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto aiiixed my'signature in the presence of two witnesses.

DAVID W. REIP.

Witnesses:

LEE VioLET'r, W. H. TRUMBULL.

five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. 

